molly2kit

Hi.  I am sailing in May in a room I am sharing with my adult son.

The rates for the cruise are fairly reasonable and as we have different hours, one person is a night owl. One isn’t.  I thought I might purchase an additional room for him so that we don’t conflict with each other.

I booked direct with Holland.

phoned just now to find out how to do this.  First the agent told me no problem, just buy the extra room.   I questioned this as room rate of presently booked room is higher now than when we booked and I thought they might raise the price  She decided to check.   Came back on line to tell me that I would have to pay a cancellation fee of $685 for the room presently booked as well as purchase the new room.  This is because it was a non Refundable rate.    No refund of taxes or port fees on present room
 

Does anyone have an idea how to do this without the fee?  I’m actually trying to pay them more money by booking an additional solo rate cabin.   
 

Thank you for any ideas you can offer to solve this dilemma

I live in Vancouver and while I haven’t taken this particular transfer I think you should talk to Princess or your Travel Agent, whomever you booked with, and get Princess to guarantee that their agent at the airport and the shuttle will wait for you.  I think 20 minutes would be extremely fast for you to get off the plane, get your luggage, go through customs and find the Princess rep.

I don’t know what time you have to be boarded on the ship.  The ships usually depart around 5-5:30 but you have to be boarded earlier than that.

We stayed at Hotel Bethel in Nyhavn area.  Took train from airport then short walk to hotel.  Nyhavn is a great area, we walked everywhere and even took the bus to the port.

enjoy!  Copenhagen is a beautiful city

I have used CVM test at YVR.  Very easy and quick too.  Flew to Palm Springs.   Coming home got a test at Walgreens drive through 70 hours before flight, had test results 36 hours later.  This was a PCR test, if I could do it again I would choose the NAAT test which has faster results.  I think CVM has lowered their rates to $79 plus gst now, we paid $129, I guess this is because of competition!

Did this in reverse a few years ago.   Vancouver, 3 day cruise to Skagway, then the  land portion.  I would say you will have free time in Denali but not as much as you might expect because there is a 5 hour tour of Denali, I believe that is included on the tour.  The restaurants in Denali are pretty expensive, the rooms are really nice.  More free time in Dawson, we loved it there.  Fairbanks we walked to a great museum.

I was not expecting much of this holiday, have been to Alaska numerous times.  This was also our first organized tour.  However, this was a really great vacation.

We had many great times and I would love to do it again.  Very well organized.  Don’t overpack as we had to deal with our luggage a bit.  I called this the puffy vest holiday as we wore them every day, not cold but cool.  It was wonderful to leave your luggage at the door of the room and it was moved to the bus for you every morning.

We went late June 2017.  

I stayed at the Daiwa Roynet Yokohama Koen in April 2018. It is a very clean hotel, large room, incredible deep bathtub which is great at the end of a day of walking.   Lots of sightseeing, restaurants and shopping within walking distance, as is the fabulous Yokohama Chinatown.  I loved the excitement of the baseball stadium across the street and all the fans in the area for the game.
 

I took the train from Tokyo to Yokohama, walked to the hotel, solo senior pulling own suitcase, also walked to Osanbashi pier.  
 

Did a day trip by train to Kamakura which was a wonderful day.

Writing this comment makes we want to go back…………

Second vote for Daiwa Yokohama Koen.   Walking distance to cruise port.  

Off Royal today.   Used my 150 free minutes.  Did not have great performance, quite slow.

Have booked many guarantees and most turned out well.  Coming up at the end of the month booked IF guarantee on Royal.  Was assigned IB mid ship.   I did receive an email from Princess of an upgrade, had been checking daily for assignment 

i booked online with Princess about 30 days before sailing.  

I don't know if the Mom has a cellphone with apps but I use Whatsapp all the time to text and place voice calls using wifi. Called home to Vancouver BC every day from 3 weeks in Tokyo. Both parties need to have the app and set it up. Works very well!!

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I've done partial transits on Zuiderdam and Coral Princess. Both were excellent. I prefer the Coral Princess ship as it is a little smaller and I prefer the layout. Both cruises were excellent and I would recommend either one

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I was on Golden for 16 days from Tokyo to Anchorage. Yes there were lots of leaks. Rumour was that an outside contractor installed the big new flat screen tvs and drilled into water pipes in some places causing water leaks all over. Some people had to move rooms. They were working on fixing these leaks the whole cruise. Cabin A702 the AC was fine. I actually never saw snow and was fine wearing a light down vest while walking outside on various days across the Pacific. However, I live in Vancouver so a cooler part of the world. Anyway ship temperature seemed fine to me.

I also thought the inside of the ship looked pretty good. Some carpets had been replaced. Didn't notice any rust

The day in Osaka was a mess.....everyone had to be off the ship at 4pm. Had to be down to a 0 passenger count as we would be leaving Japan. Unfortunately 2 passengers decided the Japanese rules didn't apply to them and wouldn't leave the ship. This caused all the other passengers to be waiting in uncomfortable surroundings for 90 minutes or so. I agree Princess staff did not assist passengers waiting to reboard and I don't know why it took them so long to break into the offenders room and escort them off. Believe me there were many people who wanted to find out who the culprits were. They caused a lot of distress to a many people.

I enjoyed the cruise very much, the staff was great, dining, International Cafe and coffee, shops and especially the cruise directors staff who went all out to entertain us on 7 long days at sea.

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I have just left Tokyo. I did everything on my own. I booked a pocket wifi in advance and picked it up at the airport. That way I could use google maps on my phone everywhere I went. I stayed at the Gracery Hotel Tamachi. Very close to airport and easy access to the JR Yamanote line, just a few minutes walk. This is a very quiet business hotel, so no excitement at night. I paid $500 CDN for 4 nights in a single room. No meals included. I am a senior female and walked the streets at night around this hotel with no worry. Front desk staff speak excellent English and are very helpful.

I travelled all over Tokyo by train using a Pasmo card which I bought at the airport and loaded with extra funds as needed

I will stay in this hotel next time I visit Tokyo

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We stayed at the Four Points by Sheraton Sheikh Zayed Road in Dubai. It was a short taxi ride to the Dubai Mall and Burj Khalifa and around 40/45AED to get to the old town. We arrived late on Thursday so only had two full days there. We didn’t plan on doing much. It was our first time in Dubai and it now gives us a better understanding of where things are for when we return. We paid 300AED for the taxi to the cruise terminal. I had priced it using an UberXL at over 500AED. [emoji54]

 

 

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Much appreciated......Thank you

Marlene

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I phoned to ask this question and Holland customer service told me I had to be booked and then they would look at air for me. I prefer checking is advance of booking.....wish they would do it the same as others, Princess is so easy to look at

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Hello UKPete71. Thank you for doing this review as I am looking at this itinerary in the future. Would love to know what hotel you stayed at before the cruise as I will plan for 3-4 days prior

Thanks. Marlene

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First of all, i haven't done this, fire sale chicken! I think this is a great idea though. Book a flight and then pick the best deal cruise. I can tell you that I was booked on Celebrity Millenium from Yokohama Apr 26. Prices did NOT go down as they had in the past so I moved booking to Golden Princess Apr 27. Volendam was Apr 25. All from Yokohama to North America. Paid in full for Golden ..... Several weeks later Celebrity went way, way down and I would have been totally annoyed if I had kept that reservation. Then Princess dropped and we went from inside guarantee to assigned balcony cabin. Very happy. Celebrity went sold out then cabins available again at a rate slightly less than we paid originally. Princess balconies have shot up in price again......

So this is roller coaster ride and I'm very happy with where we are now. I think if there are 3 cruises to choose from you are good. You can check the "scanner" website you can see what you have to work with. Remember European train trips are quick and reasonable and fun and pretty easy. I think this sounds great!

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Son took me for dinner for my birthday in January. Food was mediocre. Waiter brought wrong entree first time then we didn't see him again. Terrible service and as this is not a special restaurant people were walking through where we were eating the whole time. I felt like we were on display. Would NEVER DO THIS AGAIN. Crown Gris was a much better experience

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Something extra special. Transpacific itinerary.

 

 

 

 

 

Golden Princess

 

Transpacific (Tokyo to Whittier)

 

April 27 - May 12, 2018

 

 

 

solo inside $999

 

solo balcony $999

 

 

 

(additional fees/taxes $150)

Thanks. I'm on this cruise sharing with a friend. We paid way more for inside guarantee double occupancy. Prices started dropping last week and we got a balcony for no extra charge but this is even better!! Hope someone can take advantage. 4 ports in Japan, 1 S Korea then 7 sea days.

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Beautiful photos. Thank you so much

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What hotel did you stay at. Planning a trip next year. Thank you

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I just did this last week on the website. Prepaid gratuity and bought OBC using a CDN credit card. Purchased at 1.25 rate.

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Thanks everyone for the really good ideas. I think all of them sound like they would work well. I especially like the idea of picking a few cruises, booking airfare and then waiting to see which cruise ends up the best deal. I've been on a few cruise lines and like them all so not super loyal which works out well.

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I love this topic but a lot of the cruises are last minute so it seems like airfare might eat away at the savings. Do people drive to embarkation, have tips for lower airfare or do you ever check if there are multiple ships leaving port in a close timeframe and book airfare in advance and book the cruise later? Interested in how to truly enjoy these low cost adventures. Thank you in advance.

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End of January from San Pedro to LAX, no traffic $70 including tip. We had an early flight to catch. Otherwise I have always used Super Shuttle

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